Bend Schools Make Best of Tough Challenges

Bigger class sizes, fewer teachers and even less money to work with from Salem for the school year about to begin.

It’s a dire situation, and while school officials put on a brave face and explain how things will work out, the reality is, school administrators say Oregon lawmakers are almost dis-investing in our future.

“I really wish they would fund schools differently and increase the allocation,” Pilot Butte Middle School Principal Michael Hecker said Friday. “Because if you look at inflation, our budget has not kept up pace with that.”

It was a rough last school year for Hecker.

Not only did all staff in the Bend-La Pine District get a cut in salary and benefits, he was at the center of a school boundary storm.

This year, Pilot Butte will be busing in new kids from across town because Cascade Middle School in southwest Bend was over capacity.

Some Westside parents were furious — almost a West vs. Eastside mentality that seemed to attack every aspect of Pilot Butte.

“Yes, it’s disappointing,” Hecker said. “It was difficult to go through that last year, I can’t lie about that at all. But I think we know what we’re doing over here, and our goal is to spread that message. The real proof is going to be in what our results are.”

Average class size, though, has gone up to 30 students at Pilot Butte and many other schools, because all temporary staff was let go.

Oregon schools will receive less state funding in this budget than they did four years ago, but have a similar number of students — and more bills to pay.

As a result, districts are trimming days, closing schools, laying off teachers — and still coming up short.

Twenty high school teachers in Bend were laid off this year, and the high schools switched to a seven-period schedule, squeezing more classes into a day.

The silver lining has been the 2006 school bond that Bend voters passed.

And Pilot Butte librarian Linda Bilyeu has a hard time containing her excitement about it.

New chairs and tables, new carpet and $20,000 worth of new books.

“You can’t pay for staff with bond money,” she said. “but you can see what the kids are getting because of bond money, and it’s not just the building, it’s textbooks — it’s exciting.”

If any jobs open up, at least within the Bend-La Pine district, officials say those temporary staff members who were let go will get first crack at them.

School in the district starts Sept. 7 for first- through ninth-graders and on Sept. 8 for high schoolers.